It is common for marketing purposes to bundle together like packages of products, such as small boxes or containers into groups of perhaps three to six, or even more. Such bundling is often done for small products that typically would be sold in bundled groups.
One common example of such a product is a drinking box, commonly known as a Tetra-pak.TM. wherein a cardboard or similar paper product box has been made "waterproof" and is used to hold juice or the like. Such drinking boxes are held securely together by means of plastic shrink wrap sleeve covering the exterior of all three boxes, except possibly for a portion of the ends of the two end drinking boxes. Conventionally, the three drinking boxes are juxtaposed one to another in side-by-side relation, so that their faces are visible. Such a group of three drinking boxes will henceforth be referred to as a "three-pack", for the sake of convenience. Such Tetra-pak.TM. type drinking boxes are typically sold as "three-packs", or may be sold in trays of twenty-seven wherein nine "three-packs" are placed in a cardboard tray and securely retained in the cardboard tray by means of a large single piece of shrink wrap.
The problem with conventional Tetra-paks.TM. packaged in groups of three as described above, is that the shrink wrap packaging sleeve is difficult to open without a suitable implement, such as scissors, a knife, or the like. Further, in order for shrink wrap to properly hold together the three drinking boxes, it must virtually surround the three drinking boxes. Therefore, there is a significant amount of plastic shrink wrap used for each group of three boxes. There is more plastic material used than is absolutely necessary to keep together three drinking boxes, which is therefore wasteful of plastic material and also is more costly to provide such material than is necessary.
Further, the shrink wrap, once removed from the boxes, becomes garbage, and must be disposed of accordingly, which may be difficult as drinking boxes are often used when travelling, or when out-of-doors, or in similar situations where ready garbage disposal may not be possible. Shrink wrap therefore frequently becomes discarded litter. The discarded shrink wrap becomes useless garbage, even if properly disposed of. It would, therefore, be desirable to have a means by which drinking containers could be held together by a means which is easy to open without the use of a separate implement, such as scissors or a knife, and also that generally remains with the drinking boxes, so as to not become garbage, or unwanted additional litter.
Another problem with the packaging of drinking boxes using a shrink wrap material is that the machinery to do this is relatively large, and is expensive to acquire, maintain, install, and operate. What is needed is an apparatus to secure drinking boxes together, which apparatus is relatively small, inexpensive to acquire, maintain, install and operate.
In another area of industry, it is common to bundle together a number of cigarette packages into a larger carton, for purposes of storing and shipping. The packages of cigarettes are typically retained within a foil package. This foil package tends to be somewhat expensive as it necessarily has a substantial amount of artwork on it for identification and advertising purposes. Also, the foil outer package ultimately becomes a substantial amount of waste material.
Another problem with the packaging of cigarettes as described above is that the machinery to do this is relatively large, and is expensive to acquire, maintain, install, and operate. What is needed is an apparatus to secure together packages of cigarettes into the equivalent of a carton, which apparatus is relatively small, inexpensive to acquire, maintain, install and operate.